Bashing CW Nevius, the Regatta Pinata – He Still Doesn’t Realize That the Unpopular America’s Cup is Still Very Unpopular

To the list of failed America’s Cup proposals that San Francisco Chronicle writer CW Nevius considers “just fine,” add the current proposal.

“The America’s Cup came to San Francisco with a trumpet fanfare and soaring expectations.”

TRUMPETED BY WHOM? CW NEVIUS. EXPECTATIONS FUELED BY WHOM? THE VERY SAME CW NEVIUS. AND ACTUALLY, THE AMERICA’S CUP HASN’T ACTUALLY COME YET, ONLY VARIOUS PROPOSALS HAVE COME, ALL OF THEM BAD YET ALL OF THEM CHEERED ON BY DULL-WITTED CW NEVIUS.

The Embarcadero waterfront would be transformed and finally developed.

Up to 10 sailing teams would skim across the bay for the right to challenge for the Cup.

ACTUALLY, IT WAS MORE THAN THAT. HOW ABOUT 14 OR 18? (ONLY THE SKY WAS THE LIMIT BACK IN THE DAY.)

Hundreds of thousands of people would attend an event that would create jobs, stimulate the local economy, and cost the city virtually nothing.

I DON’T THINK THAT WAS PROMISED, IRL.

OK, that was fun.

IT WAS FUN FOR YOU NEVIUS, BUT SO WAS ATTENDING MONEY-LOSING OLYMPIADS AND THEN MOVING ON – THAT WAS “FUN” FOR YOU AS WELL. REALLY, YOU PERSONALLY, CW NEVIUS, PROBABLY SHOULD HAVE NO OBJECTION TO ANY SPORTING EVENT HELD ANYWHERE AT ANYTIME, NO MATTER HOW MUCH MONEY IT LOSES.

Now here’s the reality. The waterfront will get a bit of a sprucing up, and the black hole known as Piers 30-32 will be shored up to extend their useful life another 15 to 20 years. There will be more like five sailing teams. And not only is the Cup not yet generating thousands of jobs, the America’s Cup Event Authority is cutting staff to save money. And frankly, we’re not sure how many spectators will show up, but the current thinking is to revise the numbers down.

SO IT WAS ALL A LIE, WASN’T IT? A LIE THAT YOU YOURSELF PROMOTED, CW NEVIUS.

Stephen Barclay, interim CEO of the event authority, says 28 employees were laid off Friday, but that only makes sense as we transition to America’s Cup Lite.

WE’RE NOT REALLY TRANSITIONING TO A SMALLER AMERICA’S CUP BECAUSE THERE WAS NO BIG AMERICA’S CUP IN THE FIRST PLACE. THAT WAS SIMPLY WHAT LARRY ELLISON WANTED, WHAT HE FANTASIZED ABOUT.

“We now know the deal,” he said. “It means we have a reduced footprint and we will pay more but earn less. It therefore gives us the opportunity to organize ourselves accordingly.”

UH, NO. ACTUALLY, NOBODY REALLY CARES ABOUT LARRY ELLISON’S AMERICA’S CUP AND THAT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH SAN FRANCISCO.

Quite frankly, that’s just fine.

NO IT’S NOT, IT’S STILL GOING TO COST SAN FRANCISCO QUITE A BIT OF MONEY. WHY NOT JUST HAVE LARRY ELLISON PAY FOR THE RACE, HAS THAT BEEN CONSIDERED?

This may be a downsize from the original extravaganza, but it will still be an awesome event in the perfect spot.

WHAT WILL MAKE IT AWESOME? WHY IS SAN FRANCISCO THE PERFECT SPOT FOR A OVERSIZED CATAMARAN RACE?

I continue to think that even people who don’t know a spinnaker from an anchor will find these races unexpectedly compelling.

SO, YOU’RE EXPECTING THE UNEXPECTED BECAUSE. BECAUSE WHY? YOU’VE BEEN CONSISTENTLY WRONG ABOUT THIS EVENT FOR YEARS NOW – HAVEN’T YOU LEARNED ANYTHING YET, CW NEVIUS?

It will be a showcase for the city and the bay, and I will be extremely surprised if it isn’t a killer event.

IT WON’T BE A KILLER EVENT. SURPRISE!

There will be inevitable doomsayers as the expectations are downsized, but other than learning a good lesson about promising too much too soon, I don’t see this as a problem.

BUT NOBODY GIVES A FUCK ABOUT THE AMERICA’S CUP. EXPECTATIONS AREN’T BEING DOWNSIZED BECAUSE THEY WEREN’T ALL THAT BIG TO BEGIN WITH.

For starters, good for the city, the port and Cup organizers to reach a compromise for the repairs to Piers 30-32.

SO, CW NEVIUS HAS BEEN CHEERLEADING FOR ANY PROPOSAL PUT FORTH BY LARRY ELLISON OVER THE YEARS AND NOW HE’S SIMPLY DOING THE SAME, HAVING LEARNED NOTHING, SEEMINGLY.

The big, flat eyesore has been used as a parking lot, and there were high hopes of spending nearly $100 million to completely redo the pier and begin large-scale development.

THAT EYESORE MAKES MONEY FOR SAN FRANCISCO, NOT THAT YOU CARE ABOUT THAT, NEVIUS.

When that deal fell apart amid inflated expenses, concerns about development and deadline pressure, Supervisors Mark Farrell and some newspaper columnists howled at the lost opportunity. The city, we complained, lost an opportunity to build something modern and cool on that asphalt wasteland and ruined the Cup’s plans too. The idea was to stage the teams there, right in the middle of the waterfront, so spectators could come check out the boats.

BUT PEOPLE DON’T CARE ABOUT THE BOATS. YOU KEEP FORGETTING. SAN DIEGO JUST SNORED THROUGH THEIR VERSION OF THE AMERICA’S CUP SO WHY SHOULD SAN FRANCISCO BE ANY DIFFERENT?

Organizers compared it to getting a pass to the pits at a NASCAR race.

NO NO, YOU SEE, TV PEOPLE PAY MONEY FOR THE RIGHT TO BROADCAST SOMETHING POPULAR LIKE NASCAR, BUT TV PEOPLE GET PAID MONEY FOR THE OBLIGATION TO BROADCAST SOMETHING UNPOPULAR LIKE THE AMERICA’S CUP.

And now that expectations have been toned down, we can stop looking at this as a transformative real estate event or an economic boondoggle, and just see it for what it is – a boat race.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 26th, 2012 at 7:42 am and is filed under paranormal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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